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German cannibal disturbs the peace

Wednesday 1st April, 2015

In Dresden, Germany, a court has sentenced a former police officer to eight years and six months in prison for killing a willing victim he met on a website for cannibalism fetishists. Judge Birgit Wiegand said the defendant, Detlev Guenzel, aged 57, was guilty of “murder motivated by sexual lust, and disturbing the peace of the dead.”

Guenzel murdered Polish-born Wojciech Stempniewicz, a business consultant, in November 2013. He cut the body into small pieces in a slaughter chamber he built in his cellar, and then buried them in his garden. There was no evidence that he ate any part of his victim. Guenzel has three adult children and was described by neighbours as friendly, generous and polite.

The court heard that Stempniewicz harboured a sexually charged death wish, a line of argument accepted by the judge. A 50-minute video Guenzel made was played during the trial and showed him covered in blood as he mutilated the corpse, muttering, “I never thought I would sink so low.”